Notes
66% Humidity. Hot and humid.
Fast course that is mostly wide and straight across top of dam with ~40ft (12m) downhill in the last 200 meters (elevation according to gps, I don't think it's that steep, I'd say closer to 20-30ft drop maybe?).
Problem was mostly strong headwind and crosswind all the way, no tailwind at all (weather station recorded wind speed of 18.4mph and gust of 27.6mph)
Garmin: 5:45.49 (3:35/km)
Official: 5:45.90 (3:35/km)
GPS was spot on likely because of clear sky and straight course.
There were 4 heats, <6min, 6-8min, 8-10min, and the rest. Coach told me to join heat 1, I started in the back of the group expecting to be almost last knowing that my 1500m time trial would put me barely at 5:59 (5k PR projected 6:04)
1st quarter: Trying to keep pace with the group which went out really fast. Pace dropped quite a bit afterward. Breathing started to suck soon and commanded my attention all the way through the race.
2nd quarter: Trying to stay steady with the few runners in a group, breathing sucked
3rd quarter: Arms and shoulders losing strength and had trouble keeping up with the pumping, I had probably never ran this hard before and the lack of upper body strength was apparent (result of no cross training).
4th quarter: Last 400m felt like a very very slight gentle decline and a few runners near me were speeding up, I followed. I think I may have kicked too early. Last 200m the downhill started, landing was hard and I was afraid of falling over. Breathing at its worst. I actually had slowed (according to garmin) probably due to the pounding on the legs, or suffering oxygen debt from the early kick, although it felt like I was flying (or falling).
Quarter splits based on gps:
Dist Time Delta Pace/mi Pace/km
0.25 1:19.5 1:19.5 5:18/mi 3:18/km
0.50 2:47.5 1:28.0 5:52/mi 3:39/km
0.75 4:17.5 1:30.0 6:00/mi 3:44/km
1.00 5:45.9 1:28.4 5:54/mi 3:40/km